I’m a pretty avid collector of wrestling, WCW in particular, and one of the neat parts of investing my time and effort into my collection is that I have managed to amass a pretty thorough list of shows. Aside from every edition of Nitro and Thunder, I have countless episodes of Saturday Night, Worldwide, Pro, and even “Prime”.

Prime was one of Bischoff’s brainfarts from the era of the Disney tapings. In essence, he would line up months of programming over the course of a week or two. The positive part of this is he could easily manipulate the crowds into reacting however he wanted, by turning the shows into a near legitimate “Studio” show. It was also extremely cost effective. Of course, it allowed no flexibility what-so-ever; so over time, Prime was just about the last remnants, with your standard stars squashing jobbers effect, that eventually Saturday Night would become.

In short, it gave Meng something to do.

CHRIS CRUISE as a terrifying “Baby New Year” is with DUSTY RHODES, who promises us a boogie woogie show. Cruise shaking his ass in a diaper is enough to make me want to wash my eyes with acid.

“HACKSAW” JIM DUGGAN vs. DINO CASANOVA

For god knows what reason, the ring announcer is wearing a fedora, and I totally approve. In fact, if Michael Cole adopted a fedora today, I don’t think anyone would be against it. Duggan throws a bunch of clotheslines, because he does not know any other moves. Casanova shows off his repertoire of chinlocks, to which Duggan responds by doing completely insensitive facial impressions of children with Downs Syndrome. Old Glory thankfully ends this at 2:22. Casanova hits Duggan from behind after the match, and eats a taped fist as a result. DUD

Ohtani uses the classic WCW theme “this sounds like Japanese music” that Kaz Hayashi would later adopt. Sawyer gets a loud USA chant started despite absolutely nobody I see on camera doing even so much as moving their mouths. Sawyer does some alleged wrestling, but then Ohtani starts cheating because he’s an evil foreigner who probably bombed Pearl Harbour. Ohtani bitch slaps Sawyer, so Sawyer does the same and Chris Cruise fills his diaper with excitement. A back elbow from our eventual loser gets 2, but then he surprises me with a sweet bulldog which also gets 2. Sawyer misses a charge in the corner, and eats a missile dropkick. Ohtani takes Sawyer to the top rope, shoves his crotch in Sawyer’s face, and ends it with a Frankensteiner at 3:20. *

Meanwhile, JOHNNY B BADD is taking KIMBERLY on a horse and carriage ride through the park. Kimberly claims to be at a loss without Diamond Dallas Page, but Badd offers her the chance to manage him. She agrees, but also wants to give back to the fans. Badd suggests she join him going to schools to talk about fitness and staying away from drugs. Kimberly wistfully tells Badd she’ll never forget about Page, which he completely brushes off. Something tells me this scene re-enacted itself with Rena a couple years later, without DDP of course ... as far as you know.

STING vs. DAVE DALTON

Now look, over the years, WCW raided a lot of WWF talent. From Nash and Hall, to Hogan and Savage, Okerlund and Heenan ... but to steal Dave Dalton, a man who once competed of Superstars of Wrestling – no doubt sent coursing shockwaves through the veins of Vince McMahon that is still being felt today, along with cocaine. And in one of the stupider, short sighted moves I’ve ever seen, Dalton eats a Stinger Splash and taps cleanly to the Scorpion Deathlock at 3:04. It’s these type of vindictive childish games on the part of Bischoff that really cost WCW in the end; a flat refusal to push WWF talent at the expense of his home grown guys. Would losing have really killed Sting here? DUD

Spoiler, it’s Jerry Lynn dressed like a superhero version of a purple luge racer, or possibly a veiny penis (if you’re TNA). Are you blown away? Onoo accompanies Sasaki because they’re both Japanese, and therefore both evil and friends. JL hits an atomic drop followed by a spinning headscissors, so Sasaki bails. JL nails a slingshot crossbody, and heads back in to break the count. Sasaki’s had enough selling for the smaller man now, and hits a bulldog to turn the tide. Sasaki hits a couple of suplexes, but picks JL up before the 3 count, so Cruise decides it’s a good time to take a commercial break.

Chris Cruise updates on us about all the action from the break; but allow me. There was a McDonalds commercial featuring Charles Barkley tripping over the words of the Big Mac song; “two cheesies? Two cheesie beefies?”, followed by an As Seen On TV Wonder Mop. Sasaki applies a Scorpion Deathlock to send a message to Sting, but JL won’t tap. Sasaki chops at JL (or “choperooski” if you’re Dusty Rhodes), then stands on his neck because he’s a big tub of lard who’s run through his entire move set. JL gets 1 off a dropkick, and Sasaki decides about enough is enough. A clothesline followed by a Northern Lights Suplex and Indian Deathlock draws a submission at 7:25. *1/2

“THE TOTAL PACKAGE” LEX LUGER (with Jimmy Hart) vs. RIC GARCIA

I’m pretty sure Garcia tried to sell me some pretty rancid looking fruit from a grocery store in West Brooklyn a couple of years ago. The fans chant rabidly for Hogan, which hurts the ears of poor Jimmy Hart. I kind of hope that happens in the Hulk Hogan porn video; that Bubba The Lovesponge is unable to satisfy his wife, and thousands of adoring fans chant the name of Hulk Hogan to save the day, and drop his “big leg” all over her. Of course, in this scenario, Hogan would need to adopt Luger’s nickname, or at the very least, Randy Johnson’s. Meanwhile, Luger throws his usual forearms, and screams at the crowd to shut up. When that fails, he wiggles his pecs, and hits a belly to back suplex. A body slam leads to the inevitable, and Garcia taps the Torture Rack at 4:14. 1/2*

Dusty calling D’Amour “Scott Dee Amore” is fantastic. Chris Cruise naturally follows suit, because what’s a speech impediment between friends. And yes, it’s THAT Scott D’Amour, the same one who’d go on to manage Team Canada in TNA years later. Badd is a house of fire, throwing a series of armdrags. Kimberly does an effective job of managing him, by leading the crowd in chanting “Johnny” while D’Amour kicks his ass in the corner. Something clicks because Badd throws a punch that knocks D’Amour on his back, and then hits a slingshot legdrop for 2. D’Amour heads to the outside where Johnny hits the Badd Mood, and a sling shot splash makes the pin academic at 2:05. 1/2*

Modern Family must be seen as a god send to Ed O’Neill, who hits rock bottom during our last ad break by shilling 1-800-COLLECT.

Dusty and Cruise help us ring in the near year with noisemakers and streamers, and are thankfully kept to less than 30 seconds before the show ends.

6 matches squeezed in to an hour with the average match lasting a little longer than a 17-year old virgin, it goes without saying we could do better. I already deal with that on RAW every week.

Now look, over the years, WCW raided a lot of WWF talent. From Nash and Hall, to Hogan and Savage, Okerlund and Heenan ... but to steal Dave Dalton, a man who once competed of Superstars of Wrestling – no doubt sent coursing shockwaves through the veins of Vince McMahon that is still being felt today, along with cocaine. And in one of the stupider, short sighted moves I’ve ever seen, Dalton eats a Stinger Splash and taps cleanly to the Scorpion Deathlock at 3:04. It’s these type of vindictive childish games on the part of Bischoff that really cost WCW in the end; a flat refusal to push WWF talent at the expense of his home grown guys. Would losing have really killed Sting here? DUD

One of the funniest things I've read in the Pro Wrestling threads in quite a while.

As someone who only began watching WCW on a semi-regular basis when Nitro came along: at the time I saw "JL" and thought it was just Jushin Liger coming back to the states again.

Keep in mind that I had never seen Liger in live action on TV. Just saw some pictures of him in the Apter mags in the early 90's. Similar costumes, both were cruiserweights/light heavyweights. JL... Jushin Liger-- made sense to me.

Originally posted by dWsAs someone who only began watching WCW on a semi-regular basis when Nitro came along: at the time I saw "JL" and thought it was just Jushin Liger coming back to the states again.

Keep in mind that I had never seen Liger in live action on TV. Just saw some pictures of him in the Apter mags in the early 90's. Similar costumes, both were cruiserweights/light heavyweights. JL... Jushin Liger-- made sense to me.

Originally posted by dWsWas the name "JL" a nod or a rib toward Liger by any chance?

I know I heard Lynn explain this - maybe on Colt's podcast?, but that was a while ago - and it's nothing that creative. It was something along the lines of WCW bringing Jerry in to do some jobs, liking him but not wanting to push him under that name after he was already on TV losing, Lynn noticing luchadors were starting to be popular in the US and suggesting a masked gimmick, and WCW coming up with the "Mr. JL" name as a way of making sure no one would know it was really Jerry Lynn. (WCW! And then he lost all time as Mr. JL anyway.)

Originally posted by cfgbI’m a pretty avid collector of wrestling, WCW in particular, and one of the neat parts of investing my time and effort into my collection is that I have managed to amass a pretty thorough list of shows. Aside from every edition of Nitro and Thunder, I have countless episodes of Saturday Night, Worldwide, Pro, and even “Prime”.

I tried to do this a loooong time ago with WCW tapes (before the internet got really good, and before I got disposable income). I never had luck finding any good resources though so I have to ask: how'd you do it? eBay? Craigslist? Buying off private collectors? Anything you can share with us wannabe copycats?

Originally posted by cfgb6 matches squeezed in to an hour with the average match lasting a little longer than a 17-year old virgin, it goes without saying we could do better. I already deal with that on RAW every week.

Only on Raw there's an additional two hours of non-wrestling filler between the six matches, eh?

I was interested enough by your description to look up Dave Dalton, and can report that aside from enhancing the Stinger, he's trained wrestlers in Canada. He also appears to have some YouTube guitar covers out there.

Originally posted by dWsWas the name "JL" a nod or a rib toward Liger by any chance?

I know I heard Lynn explain this - maybe on Colt's podcast?, but that was a while ago - and it's nothing that creative. It was something along the lines of WCW bringing Jerry in to do some jobs, liking him but not wanting to push him under that name after he was already on TV losing, Lynn noticing luchadors were starting to be popular in the US and suggesting a masked gimmick, and WCW coming up with the "Mr. JL" name as a way of making sure no one would know it was really Jerry Lynn. (WCW! And then he lost all time as Mr. JL anyway.)

It's funny that that is almost the exact opposite of how El Generico got started.

IWS wanted to do a squash match, but didn't want to destroy the career of the rookie, so we threw a mask on him and the crowd loved him so much that his opponent (TNT) still squashed him but did an audible on the ending and forced the referee to give El Generico the victory by count-out which turned into a El Generico being the jobber who never loses (but never really wins either.)